NSProgressIndicator will not disappear (determinate) - cocoa

I have a determinate progress indicator. It is working just like I would expect it to but it does not disappear after it reaches maxValue. I have set the progress indicator to not display when stopped in the main.nib file, I have also entered it into the awakeFromNib{} method.
I put a log at the end of the routine to make sure the [displayWhenStopped] setting was still set to NO and it is.
Here is my code :
-(void)getEvents:(NSURL *)mffFile{
NSMutableArray * eventTypeResults =[[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
EWaveformRecording *ptrToRcdFile = [EWaveformRecording openRecording:mffFile permission:readOnly user:nil convertFileFormat:NO openReadOnlyAnyway:NO];
NSArray *events = [ptrToRcdFile getEvents];
//get the size of events for the progressbar and instantiate a loop counter
NSInteger total = [events count];
int loop = 0;
//set progress bar params
[self->meter_ setUsesThreadedAnimation:YES];
[self->meter_ setControlSize:NSMiniControlSize];
[self->meter_ setMaxValue:(double)total];
for(EEvent* event in events){
loop ++;
if(![eventTypeResults containsObject:event.code]){
NSLog(#"check eventNames in getEvents %#", event.code);
[eventTypeResults addObject: event.code];
}//end if
//display loop increment in progress bar
[self->meter_ setDoubleValue:(1000*(double)loop)/1000];
}//end for
//send the eventTypesResults array to the EventExport class
[evtPtr setEventsAvailableList:eventTypeResults];
}
What I have tried:
with and without [setUsesThreadedAnimation] which I don't totally understand; it does slow down the progress bar which makes it look better but the docs say only indeterminate types should be effected by animation.
I have tried using [start & stop animation]
I have tried [setDisplayWhenStopped:NO] after my loop
Any help is greatly appreciated
MIke

This is what I learned.
I should not be allowing the progress bar to run on a different thread even though it looks like its working because the NSProgressIndicator can no longer respond to the settings in the main thread, so the proper thing to do is to not instantiate that method, however , that was not the solution to my problem; I was doing everything else right, but the main thread could not redraw the progress because it's busy with all the other calls in the UI. The solution was to implement NSRunLoop so that each iteration of the loop interrupts the main thread and redraws the progress meter , then returns control.

Related

DrawRect and NSProgressIndicator

I will be very short:
I'am drawing lines using drawrect and NSBezierPath.
To draw these lines I am using a for loop.
Now, since the loop takes many seconds,I'm trying to use a NSProgresIndicator to show the progress and to update it within the loop I used dispatch_async & queue.. The ProgressIndicator updates but nothing is being drawn.. If don't use the queue the lines are drawn but the indicator updates at the end of the cycle.
What am I doing wrong ?
The error:
<Error>: CGContextRestoreGState: invalid context 0x0.
This is a serious error.
This application, or a library it uses, is using an invalid context
and is thereby
contributing to an overall degradation of system stability and reliability.
This notice is a courtesy: please fix this problem.
It will become a fatal error in an upcoming update.
// SAMPLE OF CODE
dispatch_queue_t myQueue = dispatch_queue_create("my queue", NULL);
dispatch_async(myQueue, ^
{
for (int i = 1; i <= 200; i++) {
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
[istance set_progress:i];
//This sets the progress, but bezierPath doesn't work
});
//Bezier already alloc & init
[my_path moveToPoint....]
[my_path lineToPoint....]
[my_path stroke]
}
});
In general you shouldn't be drawing on a background thread or queue.
Please read this document for information about multithreaded drawing. Skip to "Drawing Restrictions"
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Multithreading/ThreadSafetySummary/ThreadSafetySummary.html

NSProgressIndicator. Stopped working after first time through

I did a search and found all sorts of things on this forum about NSProgressIndicator, but alas nothing which helps me specifically. It seems like a popular topic though. Here's my problem. Up until today, my determinate bar indicator was working fine but all of a sudden, it just stopped animating after running smoothly the first time through. Here is my code
-(void) someMethod;
{
// Setup the progress indicator
double progressValue = 0.0;
[self.progressBar setBezeled:YES];
[self.progressBar setDoubleValue:progressValue];
[self.progressBar setMaxValue: (double) maxCount];
for(int i=0, i<=maxCount-1; i++)
{
///Lots of stuff in the loop
// Increment progressIndicator
progressValue +=1;
[self.progressBar setHidden:NO];
[self.progressBar setDoubleValue: progressValue];
NSLog(#"%f",[self.progressBar doubleValue]);
[self.progressBar displayIfNeeded];
}
[self.progressBar setHidden:YES];
}
Please note that I explicitly use setHidden:YES and setHidden:NO because I already couldn't get the displayWhenStopped to work correctly. When I check the actual value of progressBar.doubleValue in the log it does increment as it should to the incremented values. It really seems as if the displayIfNeeded method just stopped working all of a sudden. Like I said, it works correctly the first time through, then after that it displays the bar, increments once or twice, then gets stuck. The rest of the code and loop continue just fine and completes itself.
Does anyone have any ideas or clues?? I suspect it may have something to do with threads which I know nothing about. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance for any help!

UICollectionView effective drag and drop

I am currently trying to implement the UITableView reordering behavior using UICollectionView.
Let's call a UItableView TV and a UICollectionView CV (to clarify the following explanation)
I am basically trying to reproduce the drag&drop of the TV, but I am not using the edit mode, the cell is ready to be moved as soon as the long press gesture is triggered. It works prefectly, I am using the move method of the CV, everything is fine.
I update the contentOffset property of the CV to handle the scroll when the user is dragging a cell. When a user goes to a particular rect at the top and the bottom, I update the contentOffset and the CV scroll. The problem is when the user stop moving it's finger, the gesture doesn't send any update which makes the scroll stop and start again as soon as the user moves his finger.
This behavior is definitely not natural, I would prefer continu to scroll until the user release the CV as it is the case in the TV. The TV drag&drop experience is awesome and I really want to reproduce the same feeling. Does anyone know how they manage the scroll in TV during reordering ?
I tried using a timer to trigger a scroll action repeatedly as long as the gesture position is in the right spot, the scroll was awful and not very productive (very slow and jumpy).
I also tried using GCD to listen the gesture position in another thread but the result is even worst.
I ran out of idea about that, so if someone has the answer I would marry him!
Here is the implementation of the longPress method:
- (void)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)sender
{
ReorganizableCVCLayout *layout = (ReorganizableCVCLayout *)self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout;
CGPoint gesturePosition = [sender locationInView:self.collectionView];
NSIndexPath *selectedIndexPath = [self.collectionView indexPathForItemAtPoint:gesturePosition];
if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan)
{
layout.selectedItem = selectedIndexPath;
layout.gesturePoint = gesturePosition; // Setting gesturePoint invalidate layout
}
else if (sender.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateChanged)
{
layout.gesturePoint = gesturePosition; // Setting gesturePoint invalidate layout
[self swapCellAtPoint:gesturePosition];
[self manageScrollWithReferencePoint:gesturePosition];
}
else
{
[self.collectionView performBatchUpdates:^
{
layout.selectedItem = nil;
layout.gesturePoint = CGPointZero; // Setting gesturePoint invalidate layout
} completion:^(BOOL completion){[self.collectionView reloadData];}];
}
}
To make the CV scroll, I am using that method:
- (void)manageScrollWithReferencePoint:(CGPoint)gesturePoint
{
ReorganizableCVCLayout *layout = (ReorganizableCVCLayout *)self.collectionView.collectionViewLayout;
CGFloat topScrollLimit = self.collectionView.contentOffset.y+layout.itemSize.height/2+SCROLL_BORDER;
CGFloat bottomScrollLimit = self.collectionView.contentOffset.y+self.collectionView.frame.size.height-layout.itemSize.height/2-SCROLL_BORDER;
CGPoint contentOffset = self.collectionView.contentOffset;
if (gesturePoint.y < topScrollLimit && gesturePoint.y - layout.itemSize.height/2 - SCROLL_BORDER > 0)
contentOffset.y -= SCROLL_STEP;
else if (gesturePoint.y > bottomScrollLimit &&
gesturePoint.y + layout.itemSize.height/2 + SCROLL_BORDER < self.collectionView.contentSize.height)
contentOffset.y += SCROLL_STEP;
[self.collectionView setContentOffset:contentOffset];
}
This might help
https://github.com/lxcid/LXReorderableCollectionViewFlowLayout
This is extends the UICollectionView to allow each of the UICollectionViewCells to be rearranged manually by the user with a long touch (aka touch-and-hold). The user can drag the Cell to any other position in the collection and the other cells will reorder automatically. Thanks go to lxcid for this.
Here is an alternative:
The differences between DraggableCollectionView and LXReorderableCollectionViewFlowLayout are:
The data source is only changed once. This means that while the user is dragging an item the cells are re-positioned without modifying the data source.
It's written in such a way that makes it possible to use with custom layouts.
It uses a CADisplayLink for smooth scrolling and animation.
Animations are canceled less frequently while dragging. It feels more "natural".
The protocol extends UICollectionViewDataSource with methods similar to UITableViewDataSource.
It's a work in progress. Multiple sections are now supported.
To use it with a custom layout see DraggableCollectionViewFlowLayout. Most of the logic exists in LSCollectionViewLayoutHelper. There is also an example in CircleLayoutDemo showing how to make Apple's CircleLayout example from WWDC 2012 work.
As of iOS 9, UICollectionView now supports reordering.
For UICollectionViewControllers, just override collectionView(collectionView: UICollectionView, moveItemAtIndexPath sourceIndexPath: NSIndexPath, toIndexPath destinationIndexPath: NSIndexPath)
For UICollectionViews, you'll have to handle the gestures yourself in addition to implementing the UICollectionViewDataSource method above.
Here's the code from the source:
private var longPressGesture: UILongPressGestureRecognizer!
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
longPressGesture = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "handleLongGesture:")
self.collectionView.addGestureRecognizer(longPressGesture)
}
func handleLongGesture(gesture: UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
switch(gesture.state) {
case UIGestureRecognizerState.Began:
guard let selectedIndexPath = self.collectionView.indexPathForItemAtPoint(gesture.locationInView(self.collectionView)) else {
break
}
collectionView.beginInteractiveMovementForItemAtIndexPath(selectedIndexPath)
case UIGestureRecognizerState.Changed:
collectionView.updateInteractiveMovementTargetPosition(gesture.locationInView(gesture.view!))
case UIGestureRecognizerState.Ended:
collectionView.endInteractiveMovement()
default:
collectionView.cancelInteractiveMovement()
}
}
Sources:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UICollectionView_class/#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012177-CH1-SW67
http://nshint.io/blog/2015/07/16/uicollectionviews-now-have-easy-reordering/
If you want to experiment rolling out your own, I just wrote a Swift based tutorial you can look. I tried to build the most basic of cases so as to be easier to follow this.
Here is another approach:
Key difference is that this solution does not require a "ghost" or "dummy" cell to provide the drag and drop functionality. It simply uses the cell itself. Animations are in line with UITableView. It works by adjusting the collection view layout's private datasource while moving around. Once you let go, it will tell your controller that you can commit the change to your own datasource.
I believe it's a bit simpler to work with for most use cases. Still a work in progress, but yet another way to accomplish this. Most should find this pretty easy to incorporate into their own custom UICollectionViewLayouts.

Refresh window in loop

I have an application written in xcode/cocoa on Mac.
A label on the main window is changed in every occurrence of a heavy loop with [label setStringValue], however it is refreshed only at the end of the loop.
How can I have it refreshed in each occurrence ?
Thanks !
You should use a queue. Your heavy loop in backgroundQueue and [label setStringValue] in mainQueue.
Example:
dispatch_queue_t backgroundQueue =
dispatch_get_global_queue(DISPATCH_QUEUE_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, 0);
dispatch_queue_t mainQueue = dispatch_get_main_queue();
dispatch_async(backgroundQueue,^{
//Your loop
dispatch_async(mainQueue,^{
//Set Label value
});
});
Your problem is that you do the work (the loop) on the main thread. The main thread is responsible for updating the UI and must not be blocked!
You need to start a new thread to do the heavy work and update your UI on the main thread.
You should have a look at GCD which is a good an lightweight solution for that or have a look at the performSelector... methods.

threaded NSProgressIndicator problem

I'm trying to figure out how to update an indeterminate NSProgressIndicator in the UI using a secondary thread while the main thread does some heavy lifting, just like dozens of apps do.This snippet is based on Apple's "Trivial Threads" example using Distributed Objects (DO's):
// In the main (client) thread...
- (void)doSomethingSlow:(id)sender
{
[transferServer showProgress:self];
int ctr;
for (ctr=0; ctr <= 100; ctr++)
{
[NSThread sleepUntilDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:0.1]];
NSLog(#"running long task...");
}
}
// In the secondary (server) thread...
- (oneway void)showProgress:(Controller*)controller
{
[controller resetProgressBar];
float ticks;
for (ticks=0; ticks <= 100; ticks++)
{
[NSThread sleepUntilDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:0.1]];
[controller updateProgress:ticks];
NSLog(#"updating progress in UI...");
}
}
Unfortunately however, there's no way I can get both threads to run concurrently. Either the secondary thread will run and the main thread waits until it's finished OR the main thread runs followed by the secondary thread -- but not both at the same time.
Even if I pass a pointer to the server thread and ask it to update the progress bar directly (without calling the main thread back) it makes no difference. It seems that once the main thread enters a loop like this it ignores all objects sent to it. I'm still a novice with Obj-C and I'd really appreciate any help with this.
AppKit isn't thread-safe, at all. You have to update the UI from the main thread, or all sorts of crazy stuff will happen (or it just won't work).
The best way is to do your work on the secondary thread, calling back to the main thread when you need to update the UI:
-(void)doSomethingSlow:(id)sender {
[NSThread detachNewThreadSelector:#selector(threadedMethod) toTarget:self withObject:nil];
// This will return immediately.
}
-(void)threadedMethod {
int ctr;
for (ctr=0; ctr <= 100; ctr++) {
NSLog(#"running long task...");
[self performSelectorOnMainThread:#selector(updateUI)];
}
}
-(void)updateUI {
// This will be called on the main thread, and update the controls properly.
[controller resetProgressBar];
}
You might want to try switching your threads. In general, UI updates and user input are handled on the main thread, and heavy tasks are left for secondary threads.

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